The Beastlands
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The Beastlands is an eternal wild where every creature has a voice and a place, the Beastlands span three seamless layers, Krigala (perpetual noon), Brux (endless dawn and dusk), and Karasuthra (starlit night). Here the cycles of hunt and harmony matter more than borders or banners: predators pursue, prey evade, and balance, never excess, is the law. Weather runs in self-contained bands, so a salt desert can lie beside a frostwood without either bleeding into the other, and the land quietly resists mortals who try to force the sky, local fliers and cloud-spirits will simply shear an unnatural gale apart. River Okyanus threads Krigala on its way from Elysium toward Arborea, hollow-tree portals open onto the Outlands and elven canopies, and moonlit paths in Karasuthra sometimes step straight to gentler heavens.
Customs and Law
The Balanced Kill
Predation is permitted, waste is not. Take what you need, elder the herd, and leave the rest or the land itself will slow your feet and sour your aim.Guest-Right of the Herd
Share meat, fruit, or clear water beneath open sky and both sides owe safe conduct and frank speech until they part.Trial by Trail
Disputes resolve first by tests of craft—track, endurance, stealth, song—before any resort to arms; winners mentor losers as part of the verdict.The Silent Moon
On certain nights in Karasuthra all hunting ceases; this truce is for mourning, mating, and naming the new.Speak to Beasts
All who dwell here can be understood if greeted with patience; mockery of “mere animals” finds no audience.Geography
Layers of the Beastlands
Krigala
A noonday world of golden savannahs, bright rivers, and mountain crowns where Oceanus gleams like a spear of light. Hollow trees hide root-wells that descend to the Astral and Outlands, and canopy roads link to Arborea. Herd-plains, fig forests, and lion-bright kopjes share one rule: take only what the land can spare.Brux
Two suns hover forever on opposite horizons, washing jungles, swamps, and cedar uplands in copper light. Fireflies bead the air and frogs keep time. Deep in the half-light stands the Library of All Knowledge—a living archive tended by azatas, agathions, and beast-petitioners, where tracks, songs, and memories are curated alongside codices.Karasuthra
Above misted forests and moon-black seas stretches a sky of wandering stars that refuse every map. Bioluminescent shorelines trace safe coves, owls and nightjars rule the soundscape, and silver rivers carry silent boats beneath boughs that arch like cathedral ribs.Travel and Access
River Okyanus
Follow the great river from Elysium into Krigala and onward toward Arborea’s shores.Root-doors and hollow trees
Cavernous trunks hide spiral paths to the Outlands’ Faunel and to friendly groves in Arborea; only those who state a need, not a whim, find them open.Moon-bridges
Silver spans rise over dark water in Karasuthra, stepping travelers to Elysium or across the layer without crossing hostile ground.Star ferries
In calm weather, a skiff launched on a star-river can drift from Brux’s libraries to night harbors in Karasuthra before a single song is done.Inhabitants
Animal petitioners
Souls of hunters, guardians, and wild-born folk awaken as idealized beasts, wolf, stag, hawk, salmon, able to speak and reason without losing the grace of instinct. They mediate disputes, keep herds healthy, and teach the living to move without waste.Celestials of nature
Azata (bralani, lillends) lead revels, ward storm-edges, and keep the lore of trails; Agathions with leonine, cervine, raptorial, and avian hearts patrol guest-right and break cruel hunts; Angels (astral devas, planetars, solars) visit as calm arbiters when pacts falter. Kami, leshys, and animal spirits tend groves, den trees, and den-stones.Cloud ancients
Vast, wise faces that form in piled cloud, known to travelers as mortai, debate weather and law and will speak when the land’s balance is at stake.Dream wardens
Baku pad the moon-paths of Karasuthra, nosing nightmares away from dens and nests.Visitors
Druids, rangers, and oath-hunters from Arborea and Elysium learn and rest here; Outlands caravans come in truce seasons to trade stories for safe passage.Localized Phenomena
Guardian weather
When outsiders try to bend the sky for selfish ends, winds shear, thermals break, and cloud ancients laugh softly until the storm forgets to form.Dusk mirage
In Brux, anger breeds mirage: the more you push, the farther the landmark seems; walk with patience and the distance shortens.Noon chorus
At Krigala’s dawn-equivalent, predator roars and prey calls meet in a stabilizing chord that calms tempers and steadies judgments.Star-slip
In Karasuthra the heavens wander; navigation by rote fails, but those who follow owls, currents, and counsel arrive where they’re meant to be.Herd-surge
When a population tips toward imbalance, ghostly herds or schools appear to draw hunters to the proper cull and vanish when the lesson is learned.Magic
Wild-wise
Speaking with animals, reading tracks, healing, weather-working that protects life, and plant magic feel truer and clearer. Spells that dominate beasts or despoil living cycles falter.Performative casting
Singing a hunt-song, tracing spoor, or carving a tally while you work steadies the mind; onlookers read non-harmful magic as part of the craft, not a threat.Cycle’s favor
Those who take without waste and share when abundance comes find paths shorter, shots truer, and storms kinder for a time.Truceward
Oaths sworn under guest-right shimmer in the air; violence meant to break such vows meets a hush that blunts the first blow and sharpens witnesses’ memory.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal. |
| Time | Normal. |
| Shape & Size | Effectively infinite wilderness, forests, plains, marsh, steppe, reef, and tundra set in mosaics of microclimate. |
| Morphic Traits | Mildly sentient and responsive; trails reroute to preserve balance, sanctuaries coalesce around truce, and wasteful hunters find the land lengthen underfoot. |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant |
| Alignment | Good, Mildy Chaotic. |
| Magic | Nature, animal, plant, weather, and restorative magics lean with the plane are enhanced. Coercion against beasts and necromancy that defiles living cycles are impeded. Weather-control only endures if it accords with local flocks and currents. |
Alternative Name(s)
Happy Hunting Grounds
Type
Dimensional plane
Included Locations
Inhabiting Species
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